Abandoning communities to die
Wag of the Finger
San Francisco Chronicle staff writers Demian Bulwa and Carolyn Jones
"Crippled by a free-falling economy, an inability to create tax revenue, management recklessness and a legacy of generous contracts for police officers and firefighters, officials are slashing senior center hours and closing firehouses in a frantic bid to keep Vallejo from becoming the first large city in California to declare bankruptcy."
Vallejo, a city in California, is a community in distress. It is close to bankrupcy. The San Francisco Chronicle points the finger at the police and fire unions as the main culprits. And also at the "city's failure to reinvent itself economically after the decommissioning of Mare Island Naval Shipyard" in the 1990's.
The whole article is written as if the future of Vallejo is the sole responsibility of its residents. It does not mention the fundamental unfairness of reliance on local taxes or large retail corporations to keep communities healthy, and no mention of what actions the state and federal governments could take to help communities in this kind of predicament, rather than just abandoning them to die.
PS. I would also tag this "Communities", but such tag isn't available.
Vallejo...
Leopold Kohr wrote in "Breakdown of Nations" (1957,1978) that "Whenever something is wrong, something is too big."
In this case, what is too big is the USA. Eventually every empire overreaches and goes into decline. That has already started happening here.
Most of the revenues now go to Washington, where they are spent on...guess what, trying to extend empire or maintain an empire that is hopelessly inefficient. That's how Rome fell.
When that happens, those at the top are far too concerned about their own destiny than to be concerned about the welfare of the "little people" in all the towns and cities.
Now that we are on the brink of falling into the abyss that will inevitable follow "peak oil" (2008 +_ a few years) the whole country, minus the elite few, will be having to deal with the same problems as Vallejo.
One can fault the leaders--the vice president knew this was coming when had his meetings with the energy industry soon after taking office, but failed to warn the population to take precautions. However, in the end, it is the people themselves that need to wake up and smell the coffee (or lack thereof).
With the advent of the internet, it was easy to find out what was going to happen years ago, and all this was predicted. Yet, most of us haven't yet realized that our leaders either don't know, don't want to know, or if they do, aren't telling us for some reason.
One exception is Republican Roscoe Bartlett who has been giving speeches to an empty house chamber for 5 years about this day of reckoning (Peak Oil). As a minimum, people need to contact their house representatives and let them know to take Rep. Bartlett more seriously.
For those living in towns like Vallejo, the best advice I can give is to visit the website www.postcarbon.org
We need to start planning for the day when the country breaks up (as they always do) and start planning sustainable communities.
New! They are abandoned because...
the gougers and chiselers who run this country use their money to gouge and chisel elsewhere. Almost every problem that plagues this country is due to the corrupt rule by the rich.